IRVINE, Calif. – Real Salt Lake arrived in Irvine, Calif. on Thursday for the start of the team’s second preseason camp. We’re now only four-and-a-half weeks away from the start of the 2013 MLS regular season.
Irvine schedule
Head Coach Jason Kreis will put the Claret-and-Cobalt through its first training session of the week on Thursday evening, directing the squad through what’s expected to be a light practice that will begin at 6:00 p.m. MT.
The Claret-and-Cobalt will train a total of eight times in Southern California – down two from the 10 practices held in Casa Grande, Ariz. last week. RSL will also play friendlies on Feb. 4 against UC-Irvine and on Feb. 8 against the L.A. Galaxy. The team had just one friendly in Casa Grande, losing 0-2 to the Danish U-20 national team on Monday, Jan. 28.
Roster update
RSL made a couple of changes to the roster that trained in Casa Grande, sending forward Peri Marosevic, goalkeeper Andrew Weber and defender Max Wasserman home and bringing in defender Justin Davis on trial. RSL took Davis in the second round of the 2010 MLS SuperDraft but did not offer him a contract. The University of New Mexico product played the last two seasons with the Minnesota Stars in NASL.
Most of the Real Salt Lake-Arizona Academy players who trained with the first team last week remained in Casa Grande, with forward Benji Lopez the lone academy player set to train with the Claret-and-Cobalt in Irvine.
Plata set to train
New RSL forward Joao Plata will train with the Claret-and-Cobalt for the first time on Thursday. Plata was traded to RSL from Toronto in exchange for a second round pick in the 2015 MLS SuperDraft on Wednesday.
We'll be back with plenty more updates from camp. Stay tuned.
